The eternity of digital technology renders a level of interaction with consumers that old school marketers could not have imagined. Be it a 24/7 connectivity, geotargeting, behavior defining, or content consumption across multiple media channels, digitization has made a lot of data available on the networks. Yet the digital arena or you can say the whole world is getting even more interconnected with a game changer technology, called Internet of Things.

Alike Augmented Reality or Big Data, IoT was assumed to be the very next big thing in digital marketing and that’s exactly what happened. From last 5-6 years, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number of devices or things sharing online information in real time. Giants like Forrester, BusinessInsider, and Gartner has predicted that by 2020, nearly 34 billion devices will be connected to the Internet.

So from the above fact, we can understand that how IoT is transforming the digital world around us. This technology might be in use from a long time, but still it is sometimes hard to understand exactly what it is.

Understand the Term ‘Internet of Things’ with Examples

Essentially, it is defined as the interconnection of physical objects or consumer items such as cars, light bulbs, washing machines, buildings and other industrial items like railroad ties. Such things can collect and exchange the data across networks, enabling the addition of value to analyzed data.

How IoT Puts Big Marketing Data Above All Else?

Big marketing data has now marked its eminent presence in the modern world, from e-commerce to hospitality and manufacturing sectors. Hence today, IoT has changed the way how marketers connect with their consumers by mining data about its customer movements. The creativity lies in the fact how you utilize different forms of data mined through IoT. Let’s see them with examples:

Altering products into data-driven, interactive and shared media

FitBit is a one the best real world example of sharing data on the media. This product allows its users to post the data that is collected from their social media account. This includes advertising about the main benefits of the product in their circle. This way product outreach on social media increases extensively. It acts as a social proof thus encouraging users to purchase the product.

Using products as a service

IoT has given a whole new dimension to the representation of product features. As of now, you can include major highlights of your products to differentiate yourself from another brand. Consider an example of Gooee, a lighting provider which is meticulous in its use of data and with data it incorporates motion detectors and CO2 sensors to offer pre-emptive maintenance, proof of performance, warranty, data analytics, light and even more. This company is the prime example of using the product as a service through inter-connectivity.

Ecosystem connected products

Uber – the riding service is minting marketing opportunities for its partners, like Spotify by gathering data in the form of customer’s movements. Furthermore, they both have interlinked accounts so that two apps talk to one another, and then talk to a car. This indicates, how the Internet of Things has withstood by its promise of revolutionizing the digital marketing arena.

What will be the Future of IoT?

However, we cannot predict exactly what the future holds, but we should accept only betterment as an answer. You’ll notice a rapid increase in automation. Humans will make the decision based on data analytics and most noteworthy is that IoT will be on everything, whether it’s your smart bins, smart slippers or any other physical product.

There will be a heavy emphasis on customer experience. This will be a prominent factor in digital technology and marketers have already started to realize its potential. The Inevitable presence of printed electronics combined with real-time cloud software will trigger bounty of non-electronic products to become interactive and traceable.

Increasing availability of owned interactive media products and fully connected eco-system of products and services in people’s lifestyle, digital marketers will be able to use them to deliver highly personalized experiences and build strong consumer product relationships like never before.

Privacy & Security- Weak Links in the Future of Internet of Things

Privacy and security – the former protects the latter. As IoT consists of a complex blend of people, devices, systems, network connections, locations where data is stored and transported, so passwords may be compromised. Bank accounts may be drained and transactions may be frozen.

‘Old source code’ will be a vulnerable risk that may bring chaos to the environment. An undocumented feature is a big portion of what makes information devices open to attack.

Your smartphone could be a weak link where an intruder can intercept the text or authentication elements related to code generation built into mobile programs, to take over other accounts. This information can be used as a key to access wide range of data available to the user.

Conclusion

If marketers want to thrive in the digital world, they have to adopt new technologies that lead to a better business. They should know how to create value from their customer’s data and understand new skills for the whole new business. Innovation can drive efficiency and lead to competitive advantage; Internet of Things is one of the best sources to capture both.